Review: Swatch Sistem51

For some, the exploration of our planet and beyond is an unnecessary luxury, a result of idle (and wealthy) thumbs. Why explore, why innovate? We have everything we’d ever need right here. For others, who look up to the heavens and gaze at its awe-inspiring vastness, the journey into the unknown is what makes them feel alive. These are the people who ask, ‘What if?’ These are the people the Sistem51 is for.

Can Swatch duplicate the monumental success it triggered in the early 1980s? Probably not, but it's worth a try

In 1983, the Swiss watch industry was in tatters. Cheap quartz movements from the Far East had decimated the market, leaving old-fashioned mechanical watchmaking destined to retire to the pages of history. But Nicholas Hayek, a Swiss entrepreneur, had an idea: a cheap, colourful Swiss timepiece that served as a second watch. It was the Swatch.

Like the Copernican revolution (to which the dial design nods), the Sistem51 is a revolution in watchmaking

Constructed from just fifty-one parts, the Swatch watch almost single-handedly saved Swiss watchmaking, leaving Swatch—ironically—at the top of the luxury watch food chain where it remains to this day. To celebrate turning thirty, Swatch wanted to do something that had never been done before without compromising its ethos of fun, affordable innovation, and so the Sistem51 was born. Sistem51 isn’t just a movement, or a watch—it’s an entire production line. In honour of the original, the Sistem51 watch uses just fifty-one components, but this time it’s mechanical, not quartz, and an automatic no less. You’ll see it marked on the dial in a small, reserved font that does little justice to the incredible technology that goes into making it.

You see, the Sistem51 is entirely machine-built. Not a single hand touches it until its component parts are fully assembled and spat out the other end as a complete watch. This is a brave nod to the original because it highlights some interesting changes in the Swiss watch industry before and after the quartz crisis. Pre-crisis, mechanical watches were the most affordable timekeeper available, built to satisfy a large audience. Post-crisis, however, and mechanical watchmaking became a luxury. The Sistem51 takes us back in time, removes our rose-tinted spectacles and reminds us what watchmaking was all about.

In letters barely a millimetre high: AUTOMATIC. Not printed at all: it’s made entirely by machine from just fifty-one parts

And that message doesn’t stop with the production method; the movement within the Sistem51 is made from an antimagnetic alloy of copper, nickel and zinc called ARCAP, allowing it to be hermetically sealed within the watch for life. That means this watch can’t be serviced and doesn’t need to be serviced. So the movement is set by machine during production and that’s that; it stays accurate because nothing can affect it. Oh, and it also has a monster 90-hour power reserve. If quartz technology had never existed, this would be the watch we’d all be wearing, and that’s the point of it.

It all comes back to the question, ‘What if?’ What if quartz never existed? What if watches were made entirely by machine? You may think that going to the moon, to Mars, is a waste of time and money, and you may think the Sistem51 is, too. But you might not, and if that’s you, you’ll get it, you’ll understand what it’s about. This is watchmaking at its very core.

Held together with just one screw, hermetically sealed for life and requiring no servicing, this is the Sistem51

Watch Spec | Swatch Sistem51

Case: Plastic Dimensions: 42mm dia, 13.6mm thick Crystal: Plastic Water Resistance: 30m Movement: Calibre Sistem51, automatic Frequency: 21,600 vph Power Reserve: 90 hours Strap: Rubber Functions: Time, date